How to untag your name on Facebook

When a user tags a friend on Facebook, the user’s status (be it a simple “what’s on your mind?” update, a link, a photo, a video clip or an event) will ~ by default ~ display on the tagged friend’s timeline or profile.

One reason that Facebook users tag their friends is to make sure that their friends do not miss their (users’) posts when streamed to their friends’ subscription and newsfeed page. And I like to believe that they selectively tag their friends because their post is relevant to the friends they are tagging.

I acknowledge that there are other reasons for tagging, but regardless of the reasons, in my view it is tagging which helps make Facebook a very powerful medium for mass communication and social interaction.

But there are also Facebook users who use the social media website for other reasons, and some of them do not want to be tagged by their friends, in posts or photos.

Sometime in September 2011, the Australian Communications and Media Authority’s CyberSmart Program launched an information campaign among Australian youth through a video titled “Tagged”. Whilst the video may not be entirely related to the topic of this article as it deals with cyber-bullying and sext-ing among others, the title has recognised that “being tagged” can influence an individual’s social behaviour.

Early in my Facebook life, I also had a share of distractions from Facebook users who tagged me on posts which were totally irrelevant to me. I was not in the photos nor had I expressed any interest at all on the subject of the post, so why tag me?

After doing some research on how to untag myself, I did not realise that it was not that complicated after all.

Here are the directions I grabbed from the Facebook’s Help Center which you too can use to remove your name from tags:

If you want to untag yourself, use the Remove Tag option:

* For posts you’re tagged in, Remove Tag is in the drop down menu next to the post.

* For photos you’re tagged in, go to the photo, hover over the photo and select Report/Remove Tag from the Options menu.

And here is where you can untag yourself from a photo:

But you need to be careful when untagging your name from a photo.

After selecting the Report/Remove Tag option, there are two dialog boxes which will pop up with further options. You need to be careful which option to select. Your friend may be prevented from contacting you again or he/she may be “blacklisted” by Facebook if you get it wrong.

Here is the first dialog box:

And here is the second dialog box:

Please be aware that, according to a Facebook warning, once you are tagged, you may be able to suppress the display of the tag on your timeline but not on others’ that were similarly tagged.

Untagging removes the link to your name from the post and also takes the post off your profile. The post will still be visible in other places unless the person who posted it takes it down. If a friend has tagged you in an app, the tag and post may still exist in the app your friend is using, even if you remove the tag on Facebook.

But if you don’t want the photo you’re tagged in and you want to have that removed, here is an advisory from Facebook some parts of which reiterate the information on the second dialog box (above):

If you donâ€™t like something youâ€™re tagged in, you can ask the person to take it down or escalate the issue:

* Send a message to the person who tagged you asking them to take it down.

*Block the person who tagged you, which removes the tag and prevents them from tagging or contacting you on Facebook.

If the post is abusive, please report it to us.

Approving Tags

There are occasions when other Facebook users would like to display some of their friends’ post on which they are tagged on their profiles or timelines.

This is especially true for statuses of friends, business associates or relatives with relevant and exciting updates, especially photos.

You can do selective tagging through a Timeline or Profile Review which allows you to filter which photos appear on your timeline or profile.

To enable review,

1. Go to your Security settings

2. Edit your settings for Timeline and Tagging

3. Select No One for “Who can post on your timeline?”

4. Switch “Review posts friends tag you in before they appear on your timeline” to ON.

Each time, your name is tagged in a post or photo, you will see a review notice on your profile / timeline. Although you can view the photos on your profile or timeline or photo albums, others cannot. It is left to you whether you will approve and display the photos on your profile or timeline.

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